In 2019, Skeletal Radiology published a total of 253 articles including 111 scientific articles, 36 review articles, 51 case reports, 16 Test-Yourself cases, 15 technical reports, as well as multiple browser notes, meeting abstracts, and meeting summaries. As we have done previously, in this review, we will highlight those articles that stimulated the most interest from our readers, as measured by their downloads, and those that stimulated other researchers and authors, as measured by their citations. The manuscripts highlighted herein were chosen from this list.Objective To investigate the potential clinical application of quantitative MRI in assessing the correlation between lumbar vertebrae bone marrow fat deposition and intervertebral disc degeneration. Materials and methods A total of 104 chronic lower-back pain volunteers underwent 3.0-T MRI with T2-weighted imaging, T2 mapping, and iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least squares estimation (IDEAL-IQ) between August 2018 and June 2019. Each disc was assessed with T2 value by T2 mapping, and the L1-S1 vertebral bone marrow fat fraction was assessed by IDEAL-IQ. The differences and relationship between T2 value and the adjacent vertebral bone marrow fat fraction values within the five Pfirrmann groups, five age groups, and five lumbar levels were statistically analyzed. Results The vertebral bone marrow fat fraction had a significant negative correlation with T2 values of nucleus pulposus' T2 values (p less then 0.001). However, the significant negative correlation was only found between T2 values of nucleus pulposus and adjacent vertebral bone marrow fat in Pfirrmann II-III, L1/2-L5/S1 level, and 40-49 years' age groups. Pfirrmann grades of the intervertebral disc were positively correlated with adjacent vertebrae bone marrow fat fraction (p less then 0.05). Conclusion Lumbar bone marrow fat deposition significantly increases during the early stages of intervertebral disc degeneration. Quantitative measurements of bone marrow fat deposition and water content of intervertebral discs have a predictive value and are an important supplement to the qualitative traditional classification strategies for the early stages of intervertebral disc degeneration.Recent studies suggest that synaptic lysophosphatidic acids (LPAs) augment glutamate-dependent cortical excitability and sensory information processing in mice and humans via presynaptic LPAR2 activation. Here, we studied the consequences of LPAR2 deletion or antagonism on various aspects of cognition using a set of behavioral and electrophysiological analyses. Hippocampal neuronal network activity was decreased in middle-aged LPAR2-/- mice, whereas hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) was increased suggesting cognitive advantages of LPAR2-/- mice. In line with the lower excitability, RNAseq studies revealed reduced transcription of neuronal activity markers in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus in naïve LPAR2-/- mice, including ARC, FOS, FOSB, NR4A, NPAS4 and EGR2. LPAR2-/- mice behaved similarly to wild-type controls in maze tests of spatial or social learning and memory but showed faster and accurate responses in a 5-choice serial reaction touchscreen task requiring high attention and fast spatial discrimination. In IntelliCage learning experiments, LPAR2-/- were less active during daytime but normally active at night, and showed higher accuracy and attention to LED cues during active times. Overall, they maintained equal or superior licking success with fewer trials. Pharmacological block of the LPAR2 receptor recapitulated the LPAR2-/- phenotype, which was characterized by economic corner usage, stronger daytime resting behavior and higher proportions of correct trials. We conclude that LPAR2 stabilizes neuronal network excitability upon aging and allows for more efficient use of resting periods, better memory consolidation and better performance in tasks requiring high selective attention. Therapeutic LPAR2 antagonism may alleviate aging-associated cognitive dysfunctions.Osteoarthritis is the most common degenerative joint disease and causes major pain and disability in adults. It has been reported that mitochondrial dysfunction in chondrocytes is associated with osteoarthritis. Sirtuins are a family of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-dependent histone deacetylases that have the ability to deacetylate protein targets and play an important role in the regulation of cell physiological and pathological processes. Among sirtuin family members, sirtuin 3, which is mainly located in mitochondria, can exert its deacetylation activity to regulate mitochondrial function, regeneration, and dynamics; these processes are presently recognized to maintain redox homeostasis to prevent oxidative stress in cell metabolism. In this review, we provide present opinions on the effect of mitochondrial dysfunction in osteoarthritis. Furthermore, the potential protective mechanism of SIRT3-mediated mitochondrial homeostasis in the progression of osteoarthritis is discussed.The genetic basis of GLS resistance was dissected using two DH populations sharing a common resistant parent. A major QTL repeatedly detected in multiple developmental stages and environments was fine mapped in a backcross population. Grey leaf spot (GLS), caused by Cercospora zeae-maydis or Cercospora zeina, is a highly destructive foliar disease worldwide. However, the mechanism of resistance against GLS is not well understood. To study the inheritance of this resistance, we developed two doubled haploid (DH) populations sharing a common resistant parent. The two DH populations were grown in two locations representing the typical maize-growing mountain area in Southwest China for 2 years. GLS disease severity was investigated 2 or 3 times until maturity in the 2 years, and the area under the disease progress curve was calculated. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/vx-561.html Two high-density linkage maps were constructed by genotyping-by-sequencing. A total of 22 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected for GLS resistance, with most QTLs being repeatedly detected in different stages, locations and years. The confidence intervals of two major QTLs (qGLS_Y2-2 and qGLS_Z2-1) on chromosome 2 from the two DH populations overlapped with each other and were integrated into one consensus QTL (qGLS_YZ2-1). Using highly resistant and highly susceptible plants from a BC3 population, we fine mapped this genetic locus to a genomic region of 2.4 Mb. Using a panel of 255 inbred lines from breeding programmes, we detected associations between markers in the qGLS_YZ2-1 region and GLS resistance. The peak marker (ID-B1) will be very useful for marker-assisted breeding for GLS resistance.